Boyz N the Hood is a classic African-American film that can be viewed critically through the lens of issues of race and gender in the media. The first thing I noticed when viewing the film through that lens was the use of common signs throughout the film that were found on the street and in the neighborhood. These signs served as a visual reinforcement to the paths that these young people traveled in the neighborhoods in which they grew up.

For example, immediately after a title card featuring a grim stat that directly correlated to the theme of Boyz N the Hood was followed by an opening shot of a red “Stop” sign on the street it passed over. a plane as to indicate the rest. of the world continues to pay no attention in a world to the problems facing the children of this neighborhood.

There was also a “one way” street sign in the background of two shots when children were walking to or from school. There was also a glaring red “Wrong Way” sign just before the dead body, serving as both a message that the crime committed is not the right way to do things, and also a subtle visual clue that these kids are on the wrong path. alone. path path that can lead them down the wrong path in life. To top it off, the writer-director made sure to add a yellow police caution tape to signal to the audience that these types of scenarios in this film and in real life deserve our cautious attention; however, in the film, the children ignore the warning tape which leads to the next scenes of Trae losing his temper and being sent to live with his father, who teaches him to be careful and ultimately puts him in a path in which he is capable. overcome all the warning signs shown and repeated throughout this film that there was only one way, the wrong way, to live and survive in this neighborhood. Near the end of the movie, there was one more sign that was highlighted by the dead bodies of the guys who killed Ricky that highlighted the word exit. However, I was happy to see a title card at the end of the movie with uplifting information stating that Trae went to college at Morehouse University in Atlanta, GA. The use of street signs, statistics, and written information was ever present in this film. Although I had never paid much attention to them before, they may have served to imprint this powerful message about these children who grew up in this neighborhood into my psyche when I watched this film at different stages of my life since I was a child. .

Now that I’ve seen it this week, I was saddened to see the elementary school students’ drawing depicting a black man in a white T-shirt with his hands up in front of what appears to be a black and white police car. This film was produced in 1991 and more than twenty-five years later, in 2015, black men are still being profiled, brutally harassed, and killed by police officers, even when their hands are up and they don’t have a gun on or near them. their bodies. That hurts.

Addressable stereotypes in this film include the use of the term Indian as a slip of the tongue by a white American teacher who quickly corrected her mishap by rephrasing her terminology to Native American during her reference to America’s first settlers.

Another stereotype perpetuated in this film is that of the self-hating black man portrayed as the African-American cop in this film who hates “niggas” like Trae in his own words.

Another theme that comes to the fore in this film centers on humans with physical disabilities like little Chris, who was stuck in a wheelchair for his entire adult life. Just a one-word dialogue, “Mannn…”, with a sincere expression of disappointment highlights how people with physical limitations are often left out during a mission by those who are mobile and without limitations like in the scene in The one that Little Chris sees the rest of his friends leave in search of the guys who killed Ricky.

I think Native Americans are still stereotypically referred to as Indians in the media. However, I think the stereotype of the self-hating black man is less perpetuated now than it was in the past. However, the stereotype of the self-hating black man has been replaced by other stereotypes about stereotypical characteristics of black men that could make black men hate or devalue themselves if left unaddressed.

Finally, I think thugs in movies are still often depicted as violent African-Americans and/or minority men who recklessly attack people, similar to the stereotypical roles found in Boyz N the Hood played by characters. minor African-Americans as the young teenagers in the gang who stole Ricky’s soccer ball as a child.